Where are we going

France open their World Cup with a game against Switzerland on June 13 in Stuttgart.

Stuttgart’s a good location for France to kickoff their march to a second championship, its only about 100km from the French border and in a really nice part of Germany so should attract a lot Les Bleus fans.

The game will be played at VfB Stuttgart’s Gottlieb Damiler Stadion which looks a bit like a fairground ride from outside and normally holds 57,000 fans. This will be cut down to 47,750 for the World Cup because standing won’t be allowed, which is a real shame.

Apparently the Gottlieb Damiler has excellant sight lines with no roof pillars but there’s also a running track which keeps the fans a bit of a distance from the game.
The stadium is about an hour’s walk from the centre of town or ten minutes by public transport, which will be free on match days, great idea.

Stuttgart is organizing events for the fans including a Festival of Nations and a World Cup Wine Village and there’s a place called Schlossplatz in the city centre that can take up to 80,000 partying fans.
The local beer is called Schwaben Brau which you probably need to try about four or five litres of to give a proper opinion on.

So get to it France fans, Stuttgart’s ready.